Algeria Recovered Large Quantity of HIV-Blood Injected Oranges: Hoax

Story:

The immigration services of Algeria recovered a large quantity of these oranges coming from Libya. These oranges were injected with positive tested HIV and AIDS blood. Please share this message, and warn people of the dangers involved.

Other Versions

1. A letter from a member and we got now
The Algerian customs ordered a quantity of oranges coming from Libya. Here everything is normal
But the strange thing is that orange filled with drops of blood containing the AIDS Afaana ..an Beware of God and through the needles in a professional manner
It does not matter how you got the information to the Algerian customs but the important thing is to take caution and because he does not know that other shipments have passed or not.
Lord answers and good Lord takes us away from the disease
Please deployment on a larger scale because of the seriousness of the matter

Analysis:

A picture message in wide circulation over internet, especially through social media sites, warns people that Algerian customs have recovered a large quantity of HIV-blood infected Oranges coming from Libya. In fact, there are many versions of this story, also in Arabic, saying the HIV-blood infected Oranges have been found coming from Egypt and Tunisia as well. Some versions even come with statements saying the oranges are infected with contaminated blood, hepatitis and AIDS as a part of an epidemic. Thankfully, these stories are not facts.

The picture of orange(s) with some red kind of clot has been seen online since few months. However, there are no media reports about Algeria or any other country recovering HIV-blood infected Oranges. Moreover, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. (CDC.gov), a person would not become infected with HIV even if he consumed food containing HIV infected blood. This they say is because HIV virus does not live outside the body for long, as described below:

Except for rare cases in which children consumed food that was pre-chewed by an HIV-infected caregiver, HIV has not been spread through food. The virus does not live long outside the body. You cannot get it from consuming food handled by an HIV-infected person; even if the food contained small amounts of HIV-infected blood or semen, exposure to the air, heat from cooking, and stomach acid would destroy the virus.

It is to be noted that similar hoax stories in past warned of HIV infected blood in Pepsi, Frooti and Pineapple. So the current claims that HIV-blood infected Oranges were recovered by Algeria and that it can start AIDS epidemic are most certainly fabricated hoax stories. Sharing such dubious warnings will do no help, but for spreading unwarranted fears among general public.